“Barely a goddess for a day, and you’re already lying to humanity,” Isabel said. “You’re just like the other gods.”

I just wanted to express how much I loved this line! It really conveyed both the annoyed-sister tone with which Isabel was trying to convince (or indirectly show her belief in) the act that Emma is now a god and Isabel's disdain for the gods at the same time. Not to mention that this ties perfectly later on in the end of the second to last segment, where Hailee straight up lies to the all the worshipping mortals and baseball players about the goddesses caring about the game.

The whole unwitting god bit with Emma to start this chapter was a lot of fun to read. And between the urgency of trying to save her sister's eternal soul and the fact that Alexandra has not only shown an interest in her but fucked with her before makes it totally believable that she would be able to shrug these things off or attribute them to Alex.

I love what the Devine Defiance Club turned out to be. I have to admit to falling into the same trap that Emma did when she first found out about the club, as I too pictured it holding meetings in some dark, dank area made of worn stone blocks and lit by dim torches. Meeting at a local community center was hilarious to me, as was the fact that it turned out, at least from what I gathered, to be little more than a social club or a place for its members to vent about the gods.

Syaara didn't seem too bright in the grand scheme of things. The demons that went after Melissa certainly had a much better plan of attack than this aggressive demon. I don't think the members of her club would have been at all successful using those weapons, as I have a hard time believing that arming random civilians to fight four gods would make for an effective plan of attack. I also think that attacking a god, even an unknowing one, straight up like she did to Emma was a questionable strategy at best, given that we saw first hand how outclassed she was against an Emma that didn't even fully understand what was happening. And attacking the shoe of a 300-foot-tall Emma? Now that was just dumb.

I can appreciate her intensity, though!

And the casual way that Emma did away with Syaara was fantastic! I love how Isabel and she didn't even break their conversation while Emma violently disarmed and then smushed her. What a way to convey what a nonthreat Syaara had become, as well as how much faith Isabel had in her sister without even thinking about it. It was as though as soon as she found herself in Emma's palm, she knew she was safe (well, after that brief yet understandable sense of fear) and went about having a conversation with her goddess sister that sounded more normal than awed. Isabel didn't even acknowledge her other club members before or after Emma sent them scattering.

Even the way Isabel tries to manipulate Emma into making her a god has the feel of a normal sister-to-sister spat (we even got an "I'll tell mom" thrown in there). Despite everything, even Isabel's power-hungry nature (what a glorious hypocrite she turned out to be!) and her need to hide behind her sister's fingers in the presence of the other gods, their relationship seems very much the same (but dialed up a bit, given that Isabel is dealing with the disappointment of having godhood dangled in front of her). I think Emma's I'm-a-regular-person approach to this has a lot to do with that.

And I like how Emma has been very down to earth about her godhood so far, both before and after she realized the truth. One thing that stuck out for me was Emma telling Isabel at the baseball game (before the younger sibling accepted that she was a god) that she wasn't letting her newfound size "go to her head." That seems to be a general vibe with Emma throughout this chapter.

I think that makes a lot of sense, not only because it fits what we know about her character so far but also because, unlike the original four gods, Emma has lived with tangible, ever-present gods roaming the planet for 13 months. So when she says that she isn't letting power "go to her head," I imagine she's picturing the other gods and trying to steer away from their example.

So it makes a lot of sense that Emma is starting to see herself as a sort of gatekeeper goddess rather than the ruler of the universe. She just wants to let Melissa keep up the status quo (I wonder if she'll act if she feels like Melissa is abusing her power) and wants to keep the ultimate power to herself not to exploit it, but to make sure no one else abuses it.

I'm curious to see if that mentality sticks or if the power starts to get to her after a while. We never saw what the other gods went through when they first ascended, so it's tough to say whether they started from a similar position as Emma or not. It's too soon to call whether Emma's story is going to become a way to show how the other gods (who have sometimes been judged harshly by some of the readers, if the reviews are anything to go by) came to be the way they are or show us how a budding goddess will make different choices because of how her peers behave.

Of course, that's assuming that Emma is going to be keeping this power long term, which I don't think is a given.

While I still think that Melissa isn't a bad person overall, she really does make it hard to like her sometimes. And yeah, I agree with you that there are worse people who could have her power (and, at times this chapter, she did show her nicer, more playful side as well, which was great), but there certainly are better people that could have it as well, as we see here.

I was legitimately shocked when I read that she she threatened Emma and Camilla's souls in order to keep Brad and Alexandra in line. I get that it was a bluff (although, based on her PlayStation analogy, I'm not exactly sure where the legit threat ends and the bluff begins), but holy shit is it harsh and self-centered to use her fellow gods' loved ones just to maintain a sense of control, not to mention how cruel that could potentially be for the mortals in question if she would have went through with even part of the threat.

I also found myself thinking that Melissa explanation about the bluff to Hailee was more than a bit hypocritical, given her strong feelings against using a god's loved ones to get to said god when it involves her family (poor Vanessa). I also can't imagine she would have been so understanding if, after one of her fellow gods threatened Alejandro and Carlito, they justified by saying that they weren't actually going to damn their souls just to get to her.

It was interesting to hear Melissa's inspiration for what she envisions godhood to be, though. And I think it its really well with the gods' human roots, too; the dwellers of Mount Olympus also seemed all too similar to the mortals over which they ruled. However, the new gods at least have some justification for that, as they had actual human baggage to check during their ascension.

It was a bit disappointing that Melissa seemed more disappointed at Alexandra and Brad for going against her vision of what gods are supposed to be than the death and despair they likely caused a ton of mortal (although, like I said last review, I think there was some effort to intentionally avoid squishing some people, like Isabel, for example).

I don't know, I still feel like Melissa is fighting an internal battle between her humanity and the isolation (and maybe even a bit of corruption?) that comes with divinity. And I think her humanity is losing that fight, which, again, I think will leave her miserable in the long run if she stays on this course.

I thought it was pretty cool of Hailee to stand up for Brad and Alexandra. The last time we saw all of the gods together (during Brad's chapter) I did get the sense that Hailee has a more personal connection with her fellow gods, and I think we see that here both with her defending our two missing deities and in how she interacts with Melissa, both at the Pantheon and when she tried to get the god queen to tone down that god attitude with Emma.

Hailee seems to be the most genuine of the gods, as her desire to help people seems natural to the point that I wouldn't be surprised to find out that she was the type of person to help out total strangers in need without any desire for credit or reward before becoming a god. I feel like she's basically just like her human self, but with god powers ... except when it comes to Jay. I think her power has corrupted her a bit in that department, allowing her desire for Jay and sadness at being rejected by him to push her toward doing things she would normally never even dream of considering.

In any case, her sense of camaraderie with her fellow lesser gods was good to see here.

I found it really interesting that Melissa, when feeling Emma's power through her hand and her stare, reacted the exact same way as Syaara. Going back to my point of Melissa's humanity losing out to her divinity, this, at least in my mind, seems to back that up. That she used the exact same wording as the demoness when questioning Emma can't be a coincidence, could it? No, it seems as though Melissa is thinking on that same plane and sharing the same concerns as the other immortal being, losing her humanity to the universe her power has opened her up to.

And the fear that Melissa feels when she realizes that not only is there a new goddess in town but one more powerful than her is perfectly written here. The way she struggles but manages to maintain control and is so worried about image that she has to finish watching the baseball game before going after Emma fits her character so well.

I think this could be good for Melissa, though. Regardless of how Emma handles being the most powerful god, being a humbled a little could do wonders for the old god queen.

So now we just need to figure out where Alex and Brad are. Were they absorbed into Emma along with their powers and they're consciousnesses are roaming around somewhere within her? Were they somehow teleported to a different plane (Syaara and Melissa made it pretty clear that they aren't in this one)? I don't think they're dead (there's too much story left to be told with both of them), so they have to be somewhere. I also have to wonder if they're completely mortal now or if they've maintained some semblance of godhood.

Hey, thanks for the response :) Yeah, I like hypocritical power-hungry characters. Characters like Lex Luthor justify hating Superman because of some tripe about how he doesn't want mankind to be reliant on an alien god and that he'll stifle humanity. What he really means is that he hates that humanity isn't relying on LUTHOR and every time he gets a comparable level of power he quickly goes mad and makes it clear that all his resentment and rage boils down to Original Position Fallacy.

Isabelle is interesting because she has VERY good reason to dislike the gods, particularly Alexandra. They basically go 'Gods Work in Mysterious Ways', but unless I missed something, there actually is no reason given as to why they don't simply change things like world hunger, cancer, poverty etc etc. Melissa gets mad when the tv show host unintentionally calls her own it and Isabelle justifiably states that it's bullshit. Judging by Isabelle, the reason amounts to 'they'd rather just have fun and be the big dogs rather than actually solve longer lasting problems due to megalomania'. 

Alexandra is the worst of the lot. I think you mentioned in another review that she was secretly a softy or that she has a kind heart underneath, but you can't really walk back casual mass murder. It's mentioned and shown that Alex uses cities as toys to get herself off and that she most definitely kills and injures hundreds to thousands of people every time she does this. I figured at first that maybe she needs mass fear to function, but we saw her getting off just fine with JUST Emma's fear in the previous chapter. The fact that she specifically targeted the corrupt CEO's makes me think that she COULD just target deserving victims like killers, rapists etc but chooses not to because terrorizing an innocent populace is quicker and easier. And as a god, she just doesn't care about massacring humans any more than humans care about massacring ants.

But yeah, here's hoping that Isaballe does NOT get powers. We've already got for four (now maybe two?) examples of power-hungry gods in the setting and a fifth one just wouldn't be as interesting as a powerless human with a lust for power that could rival any deity. Her absolute lack of self-reflection or sense of irony is fun and I wonder if she'd serve the gods she purports to hate so much if she thinks it gives her a chance to scrape some power or influence from them.

I also hope that Emma retains her morals. Her being the new most powerful god, but actually retaining most of her morals, would make her a good foil to Melissa. As another review pointed out, Melissa seems to understand that she knows what she's doing is wrong but her pride and status as a god refuses to let her accept it. She demands that her husband apologize to her rather than the other way around. Emma being the new power on the block who doesn't fall to megalomania kind of spits in Melissa's face about the idea that all humans, regardless of who they were, will inevitably decide that 'fuck you, got mine' is the only resolution they can come to. 

On a side note, do you have a discord and/or patreon? I'd subscribe to get earlier chapters :)

This is one of the most original size stories that I've read and I love
the concept so much. I also like the unpredictability of the universe -
that people can gain godlike power and then lose it. It's fascinating
how the goddesses and god react to their power and how human-like they
remain despite their abilities.

Author's Response:

High praise from my friend! I didn’t think you’d be into this kind of story, but I’m so giddy to hear your compliment! I love the universe in this story and how things are not as they appear. Even the gods don’t know the entire story and simply live their lives without thinking about the consequences. Thank you for your comment, Nyx!